NALP and the Washington Council of Lawyers (WCL) is hosting “Destination Public Interest: How to Land your Ideal Public Interest Career” on Thursday, April 12 at 6:30 pm at the Georgetown University Law Center.

The program will provide tips on how to refine your cover letter, improve your resume, enhance your interview skills, and maximize your professional networking.  The program will be followed by light refreshments, and an opportunity for networking.

Destination Public Interest is open to WCL Members, and non-members, lawyers, paralegals, and law students.  There is no cost to attend, but please RSVP to attend so that we will know how many to expect.

To register for the event, click here.

by Kristen Pavón

Michael P. Maslanka, the managing partner of the Dallas office of Constangy, Brooks & Smith, authored a post on LawJobs.com about how to approach a mentor. He gives 5 great tips for law students and new attorneys.

It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture and think about mentoring from the mentor’s perspective when you’re so caught up in your own job searching worries, troubles and goals — but we can’t forget the the attorneys who are so willing to help us young ones and everything they’ve got going on!

Here are Maslanka’s 5 Tips on How to Approach a Mentor:

• No. 1: Be humble.

• No. 2: Time is our most valuable possession.

• No. 3: If you say something is important, treat it as if it is important.

• No. 4: Create contact capital.

• No. 5: Stay in touch.

In addition to these great tips, Maslanka offers some wise insight for each one. Check it out here; it’s worth it.

Thoughts? Anything you’d add to the list?

by Kristen Pavón

I’m glad that 3Ls’ reputations have been restored.

A study out of St. Louis University School of Law has found that 2Ls spend approximately 42 percent of their time off task in class. In comparison, 3Ls stayed on task 82 percent of the time!

From The National Journal:

Kim Novak Morse, associate director for writing support at Saint Louis University School of Law, has devoted her dissertation to the matter; she’s going for her doctorate in higher education at Saint Louis. She said she hoped to provide empirical data to better inform the debate about classroom laptops bans, since much of the previous research has been based on student surveys rather than classroom observation.

“All the debate between professors and students about laptop use in the classroom and whether to ban them was getting pretty hostile,” she said. ” I thought, ‘Before we ban the laptops, let’s get all the facts.’ ”

Morse and six research assistants spent one semester during 2010 monitoring how students attending five law classes used their computers, and how different teaching styles affected their use. They deployed software to keep tabs on what students did with their computers during class. (The students were informed that they were being observed for classroom participation, but did not know the researchers were focusing on their use of laptops).

It was widely assumed that 3Ls would be the worst offenders, Morse said — that an element of senioritis was at play. In fact, the 2Ls took the crown, spending 42 percent of their time off task. The figure for 1Ls was 35 percent and for 3Ls it was a relatively modest 28 percent. . . .

Morse, who has presented her findings at legal education conferences, suggested a number of ways for professors command attention:

• Offer big-picture summaries.

• Warn that certain material would make a good exam question.

• Present information in shorter increments.

• Break up lectures with questions and discussion.

You can read the full story here.

To me, these results make sense. 1Ls are terrified and use their laptops to ease the stress, 2Ls feel like they have a handle on law school and they can chill, and 3Ls are finally taking classes they are truly interested in.

What do you think about the results? Do they reflect what’s going on at your own law school?

From the National Law Journal:

The ABA’s House of Delegates voted unanimously on Feb. 6 to adopt a resolution urging the council to “ensure that the exam reflects what the exam is designed to measure, and not the test taker’s disability.” The vote came during the ABA’s midyear meeting in New Orleans.

The resolution called upon the council to make its policies clear to people with disabilities; to inform applicants of decisions in a timely manner; and to provide adequate time for appeals of denials of accommodations.

The delegates also took issue with a practice known as “flagging,” by which the council alerts law schools to applicants who have received extra time to complete the LSAT. The resolution was largely symbolic, as the ABA lacks power to compel the council to act. . . .

However, not everyone is totally against LSAC on this one.

University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law professor Laura Rothstein, who previously has served on the council’s task force on disabilities, responded in writing to the resolution and urged caution. Some undergraduate institutions “overaccommodate” students, she wrote.

She defended “flagging,” saying the council’s analysts have concluded that “it is not psychometrically sound to report test scores of accommodated tests (extra time) as being comparable to those taken under standard conditions.” . . .

The [Law School Admission] council has reported that it receives requests for accommodations from about 2,000 people each year and makes decision on a case-by-case basis. About 50 percent of those requests are granted in some form. The most common accommodations are a separate testing room, extra time to take the test and extra rest time between sections of the test. People with learning disorders account for the single largest group of accommodation seekers.

Read the rest here.

Florida Coastal School of Law (FCSL) is seeking candidates for the position of Career Services Counselor for Outreach. Coastal Law offers a dynamic, professional, and collegial work environment for employees in addition to state of the art facilities, cutting edge technology, and a competitive and comprehensive compensation and benefits package.

The primary role of the Career Services Counselor for Outreach is to provide instruction, orientation, and high level career counseling to the law school’s students and alumni in the areas of resume and cover letter preparation, interviewing skills, and career planning in addition to overseeing the law school’s participation in external job fairs that pertain to his/her assigned area of outreach. This position reports to the Director of Career Services.

Find out more at PSLawNet!

Next week is EJW’s last webinar in their educational debt relief series. Check it out!

Get Your Educational Loans Forgiven: Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Wednesday, Jan. 25, 1-2 p.m. EST

For recent graduates with jobs in government or at a nonprofit, this webinar explains how to make sure you immediately begin fulfilling requirements to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness so that your educational debt will be forgiven as soon as possible.

You will learn about:

•     The importance of having the right kind of Federal Loans

•     What you need to do to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness

•     How long it will take to have your educational debt forgiven

Register here!

Also, find out more about PSLawNet & EJW’s webinar series on the summer public interest job search here.

by Kristen Pavón

Last week, the Association of American Law Schools held its annual meeting and “skyrocketing cost of tuition, ever-higher graduate debts and a growing feeling that legal scholarship is of little use to the bench or practitioner” quickly became the hottest topic of discussion.

Cabranes, like others before him, noted that law schools are in “something of a crisis,” given the skyrocketing cost of tuition, ever-higher graduate debts and a growing feeling that legal scholarship is of little use to the bench or practitioners. These themes emerged as the hottest topic of discussion during the four-day conference, which drew about 3,000 legal educators.

“For years, [the rising cost of tuition and growing debt loads] have raised eyebrows. Now, they raise blood pressure,” Cabranes said on Jan. 6. “These developments literally threaten the enterprise of legal education.”

U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Jose Cabranes offered a three-part approach for alleviating these issues plaguing law schools.

To get back on track, law schools should shift their curricula back to core courses and away from the interdisciplinary classes that have grown in popularity, he said; they should introduce a two-year core law program followed by a yearlong apprenticeship, and increase transparency regarding costs, job prospects and financial aid information.

As a recent law graduate and the bearer of two law school loans, I have to say that I agree with Judge Cabranes’ suggestions. More emphasis needs to be on honing real lawyering skills so that law students have a real chance at landing jobs (and at being effective advocates) and having a third-year, full-time apprenticeship program does just that.

Judge Cabranes also talked about a growing “cult of globalization” … You can read more about that the National Law Journal.

What do you think about this?

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Brodsky family have established the Edward Brodsky Legal Internship Program in order to inspire and facilitate the emergence of new young leaders in civil rights law. Edward Brodsky was a well-respected member of the legal community and a passionate leader committed to the furtherance of civil rights law. This internship was created in his memory through the generosity of the Brodsky family.

Brodsky Interns will work in the League’s National Office in New York, NY and will be afforded the opportunity to participate in critical day-to-day legal work on exciting issues on ADL’s docket, including First Amendment issues such as separation of church and state, religious freedom, free speech, as well as civil rights and discrimination issues. Brodsky Interns will engage in legal research and writing under the supervision of ADL attorneys, and be given the opportunity to assist in the preparation of amicus curiae briefs, testimony, model legislation, op-ed submissions and ADL Civil Rights Division publications when appropriate.

Are you a first or second-year law student with a commitment to First Amendment issues? Find out how to apply at PSLawNet!

by Kristen Pavón

A New York Times Christmas Eve op-ed highlights [unsurprising] findings of a Cardozo Law Review study that examined legal assistance during the deportation process.

Sure — a severe lack of representation was found [where isn’t there a shortage of representation?] — however, the study also found that in 14% of cases out of five immigration courts in NY, attorneys were “grossly inadequate.”

The report surveyed judges in five immigration courts and found shoddy lawyering widespread. According to the judges’ responses, in nearly half the New York cases, immigrants who had lawyers received inadequate representation.

Worse, a huge number of immigrants in New York have no representation at all. Although poor defendants in criminal courts are entitled to court-appointed lawyers, people in immigration courts are not. Over all, immigrants appeared in court without a lawyer in nearly 15,000 cases (27 percent of the total) between October 2005 and July 2010. About two-thirds of immigrants in detention were lawyerless. Other jurisdictions provided even less access to counsel: 79 percent of those arrested and transferred to immigration detention in other states lacked attorneys.

The author offers two, somewhat cursory, solutions: 1) dismiss the cases that fall outside of the Obama administration’s focus to free up competent attorneys and 2) having private foundations and bar associations create programs to put young lawyers to work on immigration issues.

I don’t know what the solution to our legal aid representation shortage is, but on the issue of grossly inadequate legal representation — I do believe that law students should be immersed in the actual practice of law before graduating. Too much is at stake. Plus, law students pay way too much in tuition to have to learn on the job.

Read the whole op-ed here. Thoughts?

By: Steve Grumm

2011 was a great year for legal education, right?  Right?  [Crickets.]

In “The Year the Chickens Came Home to Roost,” the National Law Journal’s Karen Sloan offers her top 10 legal education stories.  Making the cut: schools fudging admisssions data, grads use their legal skills to sue their alma maters, Sen. Boxer takes the ABA to the mat, law school finals go to the dogs, etc., etc., etc.